Sony is now the top selling game console company for the first time in nearly a decade

As sales on Nintendo's latest HD console continue at a slow pace, it was only a matter of time before the company was knocked from its seat as the top selling gaming hardware manufacturer. With sales of PS4 seemingly quite strong out of the gate, it likely doesn't come as much surprise to know that Sony is now the top selling game console company in the US.

After nearly a decade since it was last at the top of the pack, Sony sold $18.7 million units in fiscal year 2013 of which 7 million were attributed to its newest generation PlayStation 4. Back in its glory days of the PlayStation 2, Sony enjoyed a healthy lead over its competitors but failed to retain that position with the pricey launch of the PlayStation 3.

Nintendo on the other hand, watched its hardware sales drop 31% over the same time period to 16.31 million. Nintendo is likely going to have to have some pretty major E3 announcements for its luck to change, the lack of compelling content for Wii U has had the company leaning on its handheld products for quite sometime now.

Microsoft had a slow start with Xbox One, but has since picked up the pace moving 11.6 million units across fiscal year 2013, up 16 %. While still safely in third place and likely to stay there, announcements of the new $400, Kinect-less Xbox One and some interesting new game announcements at E3 could start to change the tides.

These numbers are courtesy of Nikkei Asian Review, who expects Sony to retain its lead this year as well. In our latest video game survey we found that PC gaming might be more popular than you thought and that there are still many 360 gamers hesitant about moving over to Xbox One.